Work Text:
I nuzzle into Connor’s shoulder as I turn a page of my book, reading as he does his chemistry homework.
“This fucking sucks!” He exclaims suddenly, throwing his notebook across the room.
I try not to laugh as it smacks against the wall of his bedroom, perfectly hitting the face of some punk star I tried to learn the name of over the years.
Connor sighs loudly, then drapes his arms over my shoulders. “Whatcha reading?”
Smiling, I show him the cover. “It’s called ‘The Ocean At The End of The Lane,’ it’s a really cool story about this guy who travels back to his hometown and it goes through his memories! There’s cats that grow out of the ground and lakes that have healing properties and lots of other weird stuff!”
He plucks it out of my hands, his face showing his clear disinterest, then leans in, kissing me.
I kiss him back for a few moments, then gently push him away. “Con, come on, we have to do our homework.”
“Psh, screw homework, it’s friday . Let’s do something!”
Reluctantly, I nod. “Okay, sure, what do you wanna do?”
Connor shrugs. “Dunno..” He glances down at his hands. “I feel like redoing my nails, they look like shit, you wanna help? I can never do my right hand.”
He shoves his hands in my face, showing off the chipped paint. I take his hands, planting a small kiss to the back of each one. “Sure. Only if you do your homework afterwards- I’m not letting you skip out on your work every weekend, go it?”
He rolls his eyes. “Fine…”
So, we head to the bathroom. Connor rifles through the cabinets below the sink, and retrieves a whole box of nail polish. “Some of these are Zoe’s, so ignore the pink glittery shit, ‘kay?”
I take out his preferred polish, black, obviously, as he sets to removing the old paint.
Connor quickly does his left hand, then holds out his right for me to do.
“I-I’m not sure if I should do this, actually,” I say, the facts sinking in- I’ve never painted anyone’s nails before . “I’m gonna mess up!”
“Nah, it’s fine. And if you do, I have the remover right here, see? Besides, whatever you do is gonna be better than whatever I would be able to do with my non-dominant hand,” Connor points out.
“Alright, but, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!” I take his hand in mine, my fingers trembling as I dip the brush into the paint, wiping off the excess like I watched him do, and streak it down his thumb. Okay, that wasn’t so bad . I do another few lines, filling in the nail. Perfect!
And then I get to the next nail.
The first line of polish on his pointer finger gets on his skin, and I immediately freak out, trying to wipe it off, which only rubs it in more . “I’m so sorry, shit, h-hold on!”
Connor shakes his head, chuckling, and hands me the nail polish remover and some q-tips. “It’s okay! Just wipe off the extra with this!”
I let out a sigh of relief as I manage to make it look somewhat neat, then move on to the next nail.
Once I’m finished, I only messed up two more times. I lean back on my heels, relieved it’s over. “I’m never-”
“You do know that there needs to be two coats, right?” Connor smirks at my terrified face.
“I-”
Connor laughs loudly, then pats my head with his hand that has the dried polish. “It’s alright, you did way better than I did the first time.”
Pushing away my nerves, I get back to work, finishing up his hand.
This time, I don’t mess up.
“Alright, back to work?” I ask hopefully, standing up, closing the bottle.
“Nope!” Connor chirps. “Switch places with me, I wanna do yours!”
“ Mine ?” I violently shake my head. “No way, no, I’d look so bad, no, really, Connor, it’s okay, let’s just do our work, it’s fine, I-”
“Please?” He begs, giving me a cute smile, cheesily fluttering his long lashes.
I give in. “Okay, as long as it’s not black, I don’t think I could ever pull that off.”
Connor grins, delighted that I’m in agreement. “That’s fair! But close your eyes, I wanna surprise you with the colour!”
“WHAT?!” I nearly shout, horrified. “Oh my god, Con, no!”
He raises an eyebrow as he stands up from where he sat on the toilet lid. “Do you trust me?”
“Well, yeah, but-”
“Then let me do it!”
I throw up my hands and sit in his place. “Alright, alright, sure.”
“Close your eyes!” He reminds me cheerfully, and I can hear the sound of glass bottles clacking against each other. “Alright, I got a perfect colour… keep them closed!”
Connor’s warm hands lift mine, and I feel the cool liquid leave a stripe, then two, then three, on my thumb. I like the weight of the polish on my nail, I notice. At one point, I hear more noise, the opening and closing of a drawer, and he’s back to painting.
He’s done fast, faster than I was with even just one hand, and instructs me to open my eyes.
Slowly, I look down, holding my hands out to see them properly. There, each nail is painted a pale bluish-green, the nails of my ring fingers having a tiny yellow heart on each. It’s so cute! “I, I love it,” I admit at last, still unable to peel my eyes away from them.
Connor smiles broadly, his eyes twinkling. “Really? I was actually scared you would hate it- do you hate it?”
“Not at all,” I assure him, then kiss the tip of his nose. “It’s really nice!”
He puts back the bottles, then blows puffs of air over my hands. “Here, this way they will dry faster…”
“Thanks for doing this,” I say, wiggling my fingers excitedly. “Even if it makes the bathroom smell bad,” I add, wrinkling my nose in disgust.
“Minor downside,” he agrees, then gently touches a nail with the tip of his finger. “Alright, they’re dry!”
Giggling, I stand up, and kiss him directly on the lips. “This was fun!”
Connor nods, and we head back to his room. “You do realise that this was me procrastinating, though, right?”
I laugh, picking up his notebook. “Oh, yeah, of course! But next time, I’m painting your nails pink !”
“Oh, fuck you!”